Call for Children's Ministry Sponsors!

One of the most exciting things I get to be a part of here in Romania is the growth and development of six children's ministries in the villages surrounding Reghin.  I've had the opportunity to come alongside our workers and help equip them as they serve our kids.  Last fall, we created a 4-year curriculum plan, and I've been gradually purchasing teaching materials from Child Evangelism Fellowship (or AMEC in Romanian), an international children's ministry organization who has an office in Romania!  We love their colorful materials and helpful publications, and we're so thankful to have them as a resource!

This March, AMEC will be holding a children's ministry conference here in Romania!  The conference will be held in Sibiu, about a 2.5-hour drive from Reghin.  Our children's workers have never had the opportunity to attend a conference for children's ministry, and none of us have never received any kind of formal children's ministry training! Now, we have the chance to meet other children's workers from all over the country, to worship together, to be encouraged, and to hear teaching about the various aspects of our work, including relationships with kids, parents, and the church.  The theme for the conference is Aim for Excellence, which is exactly what we seek to do in our ministry here in Mures county!  We are currently praying for sponsors who will help to make it possible for our children's ministry leaders to attend this exciting event!  For transportation, lodging for one night, two meals and registration for the conference, it will cost about $40 for each of our 10 leaders.  Would you consider sponsoring someone on our team?

One of Paul's and my core values as we serve here in Romania is to dedicate ourselves to discipleship.  Not only that, but as we disciple the teachers of our children, we are taking part in one of the most important responsibilities we could possibly have:

"We will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and mighty wonders." Psalm 78:4

Please consider partnering with us as we seek to bring our children's workers to this exciting conference opportunity.  You can send your gift of sponsorship through the Teleios website (click here) or by clicking on the Give tab above.  Please indicate that your gift is for the children's ministry conference in Romania!  Thank you for your partnership!

Love,

Katie

English Classes Begin!

It has been a great week here!  School has been on a break between fall and spring terms, so we weren't exactly on our routines this week, but we had so many great opportunities to catch up on some other ministry work that we don't always have time for!  Over the Christmas holidays, our ministry was inundated with donations from Hungary, Holland and England.  Paul and I missed the official shoebox distribution just before Christmas, but there are still many donations to sort and distribute.  This week, we tackled several large boxes of hand-knit winter hats, sweaters, scarves, and leg warmers that we received in a shipment from England.  It was a joy to be able to sort through them and to distribute them to the children's ministry leaders in each of our 6 children's ministries.  Paul and I got to distribute them ourselves to the Hungarian-speaking kids in Apalina.  We're so grateful for those people who made it possible for the kids to take home some new winter gear just in time for a fresh snow last night.

Speaking of the children in Apalina, we're back in the swing of things with our weekly children's meeting there! Paul is walking the kids through stories of the Old Testament.  Things got a little behind with the holidays and such, so in order to try to catch up to our curriculum plan, he told the whole story of Joseph yesterday!  The kids were great and they listened intently.  I love watching Paul with the kids.  We have one little boy, Denis, who prefers not to stay sitting in his chair, and he proves to be quite a distraction to the other kids.  Well, Paul found a great solution for Denis yesterday!  Paul just hoisted him up on his shoulders!  That child stayed put and you better believe the kids were glued to Paul for the rest of the lesson!  For our craft, we made patchwork colored coats to represent the gift Joseph's father gave to him.

Classroom management

I've gotten a little out of order, because the most exciting part of our week was back on Wednesday!  After 6 months of planning and waiting and after several weeks of trying to secure a nice location, we finally held our first English classes on Wednesday night at a cultural hall in the center of town in Reghin.  Not only did we see most of the prospective students we met back in November, we also were surprised and happy to receive several new students as well!  Our first class at 5 p.m., the beginner class, was a packed house!  I loved every minute of getting to know our new students - mostly women and a few couples in their 40s-50s - and I can't wait for our next class this coming week.  Our advanced class at 6:30 is a little smaller, but I'm excited for the opportunities we will have to grow their knowledge and conversation skills in a more intimate environment.  We're hoping to start having our students into our home for dinner and coffee soon, too!

Some of the beginner group

They weren't too shy to answer aloud on the first night!  I love it!

Some of the advanced class

Another big part of Paul's and my week has been a 7-day Paleo diet challenge!  We weren't doing it to lose weight, but we really to see if we were able to make it a week without sugar, dairy or grains!  It has been a huge challenge!  I have more of an appreciation now for all of the alternative ingredients available in the U.S., like almond flour or coconut milk.  We had a hard time figuring out what was ok to eat!  However, Paul helped out by planning a date for us on Thursday night to a restaurant where they serve beef steak!!  We practically licked our plates clean :) We have been impressed by how good we've felt, although it's been a struggle to stay satiated.  Anyway, we've learned some fun things and we hope to incorporate some of what we've learned back into our regular diet (that will definitely include CHEESE! :) ).

This was our grocery cart on Monday morning: so many fruits and vegetables!  And our first experience with leeks!

This weekend is another installment of the Winter Leadership Training in Gornesti and Apalina. This coming week, we'll have evangelistic meetings every night in Apalina.  So many people in our area are hungry to hear the gospel, and we expect a packed house every night.  Please pray for these meetings, that many will hear the gospel, that their hearts will be opened, and that we will be faithful in discipleship to any new believers that God raises this week.

Thank you for following along with us!  We love hearing from you!

Love,

Katie

To snow or not to snow...and other bits from our week

Before I begin telling you about the week's events,  I wanted to share something that Katie and I have recently found funny.  When we arrived back in Romania in early January, there had been a lot of snow and cold weather.  We were able to enjoy a few days of the snow, but soon after, the temperatures began to warm up and the snow just became yucky ice and mud.  We check the weather each day in order to see what the "projected temperature" is going to be, and we are always looking to see if there will be more snow.  It's become a joke to us that each time we check, the snow is always forecast for "next week" or "tomorrow", but we haven't seen a bit of that snow.  Well, today, there was no chance of snow...and you know what...it snowed!  It only lasted about 15 minutes, but we just couldn't believe it.  Now we're hoping that some of the snow "next week" will really happen!

Ok, sorry to start off side-tracked already.  There were some really exciting things that happened this week.  As a part of our winter Bible training, I have two groups of "students" that I am working with 

in a mentor/discipleship relationship.  One of our goals with these groups is to serve together during the year.  On Sunday, I was able to take my group from Apalina to share in the village home church in Filpisu Mic.  It was so great to see these two guys sharing and being a part of the ministry there.  We sang together, shared testimonies, and enjoyed the fellowship with the two dear ladies in that church.  I think those ladies were really excited to have some special guests, too.  During the ride to and from Filpisu Mic, there was also a great conversation about the Bible.  The kinds of questions that these guys are asking really shows how much their faith means to them.  They want to know and understand everything! It was a great reminder to me that we need to always strive to be this way...always wanting to know more...craving knowledge and understanding from God.

Most recent photo from a church service in Apalina

I want to mention another big event that happened this week, even though Katie and I were not directly involved.  On Monday afternoon, Attila took a group of 13 men from our church in Apalina to minister in another church during their week of evangelism services.  This was the first time that many of these men had gone out to serve in another church.  We are so excited to see their enthusiasm for serving, and we're proud of one of the first 'mission trips' our church members have taken!  It's a big step forward in discipleship.

As for other ministry news, we are finally starting English classes!  Katie has been ready for some time now, but we have had some trouble finding a place to have the classes.  This week we were finally able to confirm a location and time that will work.  We will begin on Wednesday evening at 5:00 and we'll have two classes (a beginner class and an advanced class).  It was such an encouragement to call everyone and hear how excited they were about our classes.  We are praying that it will be a good time of making connections and sharing with our community here in Reghin.

After-school is on a break this week for the mid-term.  On Friday, I had a meeting with the teachers to talk about the second half of the year.  I think we all needed a little reminder about why we do what we do.  It was good to talk with them about their ideas for how we can better reach the kids of Apalina. I'm looking forward to going back to school in a week!

I think I'll just end with an update on the weather.  Since I started writing this entry (yesterday evening), we've had a good deal more snow!  I know, I know...I can't believe it,  But it turns out that this time, the weather on my phone was right!

-Paul

Doctors and Dentists

Before I begin with any sort of update, I want to say a very special THANK-YOU to all of our year-end sponsors in 2014.  We were so blessed by your giving, and because of your generosity, we are about 70% funded in our one-time gifts category (local taxes, health insurance, plane tickets, etc.) for all of 2015!!  That's an incredible way to begin the year!  Thank you for allowing God to provide for us through you.  He has increased our faith and our dependence on Him because of your sacrifices.  Thank you!!

We survived another week here in Romania... it might sound strange to put it that way, but between Paul and me, I'm not sure we've had one fully healthy day yet!  I Face-timed with my mom yesterday, and the theme of our conversation turned out to be "Frame your setbacks as opportunities."  So, this week we had the exciting "opportunities" to visit both the doctor and the dentist!

The trip to the doctor was for me.  Last week you might remember I was sick in bed for the first time in, I think, years!  And finally Paul convinced me that it might be good to go see a doctor.  We called Adél, who so graciously dropped whatever she was doing to go with us to their Hungarian-speaking family doctor.  This was my very first trip to a doctor outside of the United States!

I don't have any pictures (sorry, maybe next time!), but if you can imagine, there is an old building in the middle of some very old communist-era bloc-style apartments.  You enter the building through an open doorway and go up some dimly-lit cement stairs to a long hallway.  The hallway is full of doors, and behind each door is a different kind of doctor.  The hallway is lined with chairs and benches, and you can see people waiting outside each door.  Patients are seen on a first-come, first-served basis, and it's pretty much on the honor system.  There's no sign-in or secretary or nurse to take your name, appointment time, and insurance card :)  There was another lady who was there waiting for our doctor before us, so we sat outside for quite some time until the door opened and she came out.

We walked in to a room filled with filing cabinets and two desks.  At one desk sat the doctor.  At another desk sat the nurse.  We (Paul, Adél and me) all stood there just inside the door and answered questions about how I was feeling.  We stood there for what seemed like a very long time!  Eventually, the doctor stood up and took me in to the next room, a cement-floored/walled/ceilinged room with an exam table.  There was no sanitary roll of paper to put down on the exam table.  There was a plain cotton sheet with a rubber mat at the end where there was dirt from someone's - the previous person's? - shoes.  I was instructed to lie on the table.

At some point along in here, I will admit, I was close to tears.  I was being asked questions in Hungarian that I didn't understand, trying to communicate, not feeling well, not sure what to do next, and a little petrified about pretty much the whole situation (germs, anyone????).  I fought back the tears, but I was a little traumatized.  {Quick side note: I don't know what I would have done without my husband there!  He knows Hungarian better than I do, so he explained some things to me along the way while I was clutching his hand tightly, and he stood there at the door while I was being examined.. just his presence made me feel so much better!  I am so thankful for my husband.}  So, The doctor quickly examined me (again, speaking in Hungarian words that I mostly did not understand), and concluded that I probably had some kind of stomach virus that has been going around.

We went back in the room of desks and files, and the doctor wrote 5 (yes, 5) prescriptions for me.  I still have no idea what 3 of them were for.  The two that I knew were for something like Prilosec and for a probiotic pill of some sort.  I think another one was for nausea.  There was some (15-20 minutes??) talk about our insurance.  Because of my residency permit, I had to get one year of private Romanian insurance.  Paul and I also have international health insurance from the states.  As it turns out, the doctor had never even heard of the Romanian insurance I have (they only ever deal with state-sponsored insurance) and the concept of international insurance here is virtually unknown, so we were prepared to pay out-of-pocket for the visit (and then submit it to our US insurance).  When we asked how much the visit would be, they said, "It's ok, you don't have to pay anything.  You can come anytime you want or anytime you have questions."  Well, ok!  We'll take it!  And, the doctor and nurse are very interested in coming to our English class, so we're excited about that opportunity!  I am feeling much better now and hoping to stay healthy for a very long while :)

The dentist visit was actually for our very first routine cleaning and check-up here in Romania!  Paul found a Hungarian-named dentist on our street (we are always excited to find Hungarians here, as our Hungarian is much better than our Romanian!), and when he went inside to make an appointment, he found a very nice, wonderful, young English-speaking dentist!  We were both impressed with the cleanliness of her office.  Everything felt new!  She cleaned our teeth with a water gun (probably not the official name), polished them with a fierce blast of mint-flavored salt spray (not my favorite part) and sent us on our way!  X-rays were not a part of our visit, but she did send Paul to a separate office downtown to get an x-ray of one of his teeth that the dentist thought looked suspicious.  He walked in to that office (which was a single room in a basement - all they do is x-rays there!) and got his x-ray.  He has an appointment next week to take the x-ray back to the dentist for her to read it, and, if there's a cavity there, to fill it.  Probably the most amazing thing (besides the cleanliness and up-to-date-ness of the office) was the total cost of this dental work.  We paid the equivalent of $13 each for our cleanings.  The x-ray (which was actually of 3 teeth) was the equivalent of $3.  I just did a quick search online for "average cost of dental cleaning and exam in America" and I came up with $285!  This dental visit was easy on our missionary budget, and we will hopefully be back every six months!

Outside of medical visits, we had a fairly normal week of after-school and weekly church meetings.  This weekend, there is another installment of leadership training for church members who are interested in taking on more responsibility.  We're excited about this series of trainings, because as our churches grow, so do their needs!  We are also beginning a new women's meeting tomorrow (Sunday) in Reghin!  The church decided to have these women's meetings one Sunday afternoon a month in place of their regular second Sunday service.  I'm excited for this time to spend with other women!  When we have women's meetings in Apalina, we always have many women who feel comfortable coming in that environment rather than to a typical Sunday morning service.  I am curious about who these women's meetings in Reghin will attract, and I'm hopeful about forming some new relationships there.

I do have two pictures to share this week, and here they are!

First, here is some accountability toward our health resolutions for 2015.  We tried to set ourselves up for success with our resolutions, but we were very specific in the food area of our goals.  We wrote "Eat less bread and fewer processed foods."  Well folks, here's proof that I sent Paul to the store for two things: bread and bacon.  In my defense, we were having company for dinner, and I got a little insecure about making brussels sprouts withOUT bacon (who does that??), so... we fell off the bandwagon a little bit :)

Second, I used to wonder what these bottles are that stick out of the ground all over town in winter.  In the warmer months, rose bushes grow here, but in the winter, the roses are cut back and protected from fluctuating winter temperatures with these mini greenhouses!  Neat, huh?  We see these everywhere.

Thanks for tagging along with us on another week of adventures!  We've got our calendars filling up for 2015 - it's going to be a great year!

Love,

Katie

Our Winter Begins

We've been back in Romania for exactly a week now, and what a week it has been!  Paul wrote about our luggage problems, and we were happy to get those solved by Saturday afternoon!  We're happy nothing was missing when the bags arrived.  Since the bags arrived from an international flight, we had to sign over permission for them to be searched upon arrival for customs purposes.  I'd lost things in the past during this process, but we were thrilled when all 5 packages of chocolate chips safely arrived :) Along with all the other less important things like Paul's clothing and shoes :)

Sunday was an exciting day here in Reghin!  We had the dedication service for Dani, Attila and Adel's new little boy!  He grew so much while we were in the states!!  Most of Attila's family came to town for the service, and Adel's brother Csaba performed the dedication, so it was a special family affair!  We love being a part of their family too, and we were so honored that they waited to have this special day until we were back from the states!

Here is Csaba praying for Dani in the Reghin church

The beautiful Toth family and busy, busy Kaleb :)

It was also an exciting time to reunite with our church families here in Reghin and Apalina, and Paul and I even made the trip to Filpishu Mic for Attila so he could have the extra time with his family.  So, we got to visit with lots of special people!  Of course, Paul's time was in high demand after church in Apalina!  He was flocked with people bringing him requests for trips to town or other favors, and it was a little overwhelming, but it's good to know he's so... appreciated :) Thankfully, we made it out alive to get home in the cold, snowy night and rest up from all the day's excitement!

One of my new year's resolutions is to have more structure for the time I spend at home.  A couple of days a week, Paul is gone with the car for a pretty long stretch of time, and I want to do a better job of being intentional about how I spend my time, whether it's working on ministry tasks, studying Hungarian, or keeping the house running.  So, I arrived back in Romania with neat and tidy expectations for how this was all going to play out - perfectly, of course, even from the beginning :) Well, I told Paul (after a very crazy Monday that ran complete circles around me and my tidy new plans) that Monday felt like a total mockery of all my new schedules and systems.  Of course, everyone (even me) knows that ministry, and especially foreign ministry, doesn't revolve around our preferences for convenience and order.  And that's a good thing!  Because we're not here for convenience and order.  We are here for the people around us.

As the week progressed, I ended up sick in bed and Paul was called on a prison trip and this and that and this and that... and now here we are on Friday, and nothing this week has gone as planned, but it's actually completely ok and good because it means that we have been available to the needs presented to us, and that's a blessing for us in and of itself.  As for my new and neat little schedule... well, I am saving it for those days that I just happen to be home and wondering what I am going to do with myself all day.  I'll let you know when one of those days ever happens again :) (but, seriously, I need to find some time to study Hungarian SOMETIME :) )

Paul has been back at after-school, and the kids are so excited to have him there!  He dove right in to all the cooking and cleaning, but thanks to a very generous donor through Teleios Ministry, we will soon have a brand new dishwasher in the kitchen in Apalina!!!  Paul will get to spend less of his time cleaning up and more of his time working with the students and teachers!!  Thank you so very much!!!  We can't wait to pick out the dishwasher... maybe even this weekend! :)  Here are some pictures from Apalina this week.

Snowy (and icy!) winter

Busy child working on his writing

One big happy moment that occurred this week was when Paul and I drove for the LAST TIME to the immigration office in Targu-Mures.  We had a little scare at passport control when we entered Romania last Friday.  I had to stay behind while Paul went ahead, because the officers had to confer and make calls and be 100% sure I was ok to enter the country.  We had called the immigration office while we were in the states to be sure my residency permit had officially been issued, which it had been, so we knew I was in the system.  But, I didn't have the physical card yet.  Well, they did eventually let me in (obviously), so on Tuesday, we picked up the card!  It's really official this time, I can stay here in Romania until 2019 :)

One last bit of fun happened last night when we got to spend some time with our friends Lucian and Cristina.  They are a young Romanian couple that we have enjoyed getting to know.  Lucian is an assistant pastor and a kindergarten teacher, and Cristina is a music teacher here in Reghin!  We love hosting each other for dinner and games and great conversation.  We had them over last night for a make-your-own-pizza night, and I also made a new recipe for an amazing Hot Fudge Cake that you can find here (it's like MIRACLE cake!!!  And so perfect for winter!!).  It was so good to be together again after a long six weeks.

Thank you again for your love, support and encouragement while we were at home in the U.S.  I want to reiterate what Paul said last week - your care means so much to us, and it keeps us going in the harder moments of being so far away from our families and the familiar life of America.  When you tell us that you enjoy reading our updates or that you're praying for us with your children, we feel built up (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and enabled to keep doing what we are doing here (Hebrews 10:24).  When you think about it, leave us a comment or send us an email!  We love staying in touch, and in fact, we need that very much.  Thank you!!

Love,
Katie

P.S. In case you missed it, check out Wednesday's post for a link to an informative article about the history and lives of Roma Gypsies!

P.P.S. One more thing!  While we were at home for Christmas, my very amazing mother made us some new throw pillows for our apartment!  Thanks Mom!!  Here are the ones in the living room:

Article on Roma Gypsies

Many of you have asked us some great questions about the Roma people we work with here in Romania.  Here's an article that was published this week about the specific group of Gypsies that are here in Romania.  It's actually a book review for a new book that's been published about the Roma (The Romani People by Yaron Matras), but the article itself give a brief history of this people group and brings up many of the same questions we have been asking ourselves since we began working here.

Here's a sneak peek that reveals the difficulties of school attendance that we are trying to address through our after-school program:

"For a variety of reasons, the Romani fight school systems tooth and nail. In the Romani world, Matras writes, the child is extremely important, and the removal of a child from the household even just for the day is extremely painful. It also represents, in the mind of the Romani family, an opportunity for the government to influence children away from the Rom life. Depending on the branch of Rom, the pursuit of education by a female may not be permissible beyond a certain point. As a result, Matras writes, Romani parents sometimes work assiduously to keep their children from getting a full education." - William O'Connor, The Story of the Roma, Europe's Most Discriminated Group

You can access the full article here.

Hope you're all having a great week!

We're back in Romania

After an interesting week of packing and traveling, we are finally back in Romania.  First, let me take you back to last weekend.  We enjoyed some "get-away" time in North Carolina.  It was great to go somewhere together and invest some time in us.  On Saturday, we were able to meet with the leader of Teleios ministry and talk with him about the coming year.  He was a great encouragement to us as we think about what our responsibilities are to the ministry and to each other. We also had a great time with the Brown family on Saturday night.  On Sunday, we were able to meet with two church groups. It was encouraging to talk with so many people who care about us and are interested in what God is doing here.

Monday we started the monumental task of trying to pack!  During the day, I was able to meet with another church leader in Charleston. Again, what an encouragement it was to talk with someone who cares about us and our ministry here. By Tuesday night we were tired, packed, and ready to board the plane. We didn't realize that our trip would be much longer than we expected. We left Charleston on Wednesday more than two hours late causing us to miss our flight to Munich. We stayed in a hotel for the night and headed back to the airport on Thursday for our new flight. There was so much turbulence, that we weren't able to sleep at all, so we arrived in Munich having missed a night of sleep.While the flight to Romania was uneventful, we arrived there to find out that two of our bags were missing. When we got back to Reghin, I spent most of the evening trying to track down our lost luggage without any luck. We finally got a call this afternoon that our bags had arrived and were on the way to Reghin. Thank you Lord!

This may sound like a lot of stress and wasted time (and I'll admit, we were exhausted at the end of it all), but I am so thankful for all the love and support that we felt while traveling. We are also thankful for the extra night of sleep that we got in Washington. Even our delayed bags gave us more time to unpack the bags that did arrive. God is good to us in all situations!

I want to share one more thing before I sign off for tonight. One of the things that Katie and I learned during our time in the States is how important and precious to us your support is. I'm not talking about financial support (although we are thankful for that and could not be here without it). What I'm talking about is the knowledge that people are out there (and all over the world, too) praying for us and standing with us in our work here. We felt this many times during our visits in churches and with friends. That kind of support keeps us going. Thank you to those of you who went out of your way to speak to us and make us feel loved! When you think about it, send us an e-mail. Even if it's very short, it means a lot!

-Paul